Lucy, Lucy and Domino

" Is there any more that can be done ? "

Last Wednesday when I was at the Farm an old man from down the road showed up with a trailer in tow. He was looking for Cheryl. He said he had an old mare named Lucy who was going blind and he just didn't have any need for her anymore. He was looking to see if Cheryl wanted her. I looked at the trailer but didn't see any horse, and who knows, it was a pretty long trailer and maybe she was in there. We told him Cheryl wasn't around, so he left.

That Saturday when I returned to the Farm there were 3 new horses. One was in Wendy's pasture and two were in a small fenced area close to the barn. I asked Cheryl about them and she told me that she got them from the 'Old Man down the road'. She went down to get Lucy, the mare that was going blind and he asked Cheryl if she wanted the other two cause he was gonna get rid of them if not. Chery said ' What was I gonna do, say no. ' He called two of the horses Lucy and the other Domino and said all three were 12 years old. I'm not calling him a liar but I didn't believe him either and I'm not alone in that assumption. The volunteers called them Lucy1 and Lucy2.

Lucy1 is the old mare he tried pawning off that Wednesday. She is a beautiful, sweet girl who is sharing the pasture with Wendy. When I showed up on Saturday I found Lucy1 in Wendy's pen with Wendy. She seemed so happy to have a friend in the pasture with her.

Domino is a large spotted appaloosa that looks like a bag of dominos exploded on him. He looks like he could lose a few pounds but other than that doesn't appear to have any problems. He is sweet and scared, but safe.

Lucy2 is breaking my heart. Her right eye is gone. You can see clear into the socket and it appears like she was just left that way. There is a large abscess on the outside of the eye which looks like a small cauliflower bulb. The last time I saw something like that was in nursing school. Those types of tissue masses are usually cancer, squamous cell cancer, which can be fast spreading. The old man told Cheryl she'd had an arrow in her eye. Do I believe that story ? Does it matter ? Either way, he did nothing to help this poor girl. She must be in pain. How could anyone just leave a wounded animal and do nothing. I'm sorry, I just don't get it.

Cheryl is taking her to UGA tomorrow. Hopefully it isn't squamous cell and something can be done for her. Hopefully Lucy2 will come back to the rescue tomorrow. That has got to be the hard part about running a Rescue. Cheryl will have to make some tough decisions tomorrow based on what the vets tell her but the one question I know I will never have to ask her is ' Is there any more that can be done? ' because I know that Cheryl will do everything she can for Lucy and that's all a person can ask.

They'll both be in my thoughts and prayers tonight and tomorrow.

UPDATE: You can read the whole story on The Lucy's by Cheryl at http://savethehorses-savingthelucymares.blogspot.com/
The Rescue found out on Friday that Lucy's eye problem was cancer and not an injury. We are all heart broken and sad. Lucy will be loved on until her time comes and then she will be gently laid to rest. She'll let us know when that time is and until then we'll just luv her.